The trials and tribulations, joys and challenges of adoptive parenting.

Resources

This page includes articles, pamphlets and other publications relating to adoption, attachment, gender and disability that I have found interesting, relevant or useful. Although it is subdivided into topics, there are many that overlap. Many children who are fostered or adopted also have attachment disorders or other disabilities, for instance. I have categorised publications under their primary focus.

ATTACHMENT

This pdf is a position paper from the British Association for Adoption and Fostering on attachment. The full title is: Attachment Disorders, their Assessment and Intervention/Treatment BAAF Position Statement 4.It was first published in 2006.

Living my Life is a wonderfully simple and practical introduction to transgender issues. Young people wondering about their identity or families and friends would find this a good resource. It contains a list of definitions and brief details of gender reassignment surgery – the sorts of things a young trans person really wants to know up front.

I’m guessing that the following article by J. Michael Bailey and Kiira Triea, What Many Transgender Activists Don’t Want You To Know and why you should know it anyway, is controversial. I would like to know what others think. I found it interesting but also it typifies the academic desire to label and to some extent to pathologise people who don’t appear to fit into heterosexual normativity.

ABSTRACT Currently the predominant cultural understanding of male-to-female transsexualism is that all male-to-female (MtF) transsexuals are, essentially, women trapped in men’s bodies. This understanding has little scientific basis, however, and is inconsistent with clinical observations. Ray Blanchard has shown that there are two dis- tinct subtypes of MtF transsexuals. Members of one subtype, homosexual transsexuals, are best understood as a type of homosexual male. The other subtype, autogynephilic transsexuals, are motivated by the erotic desire to become women. The persistence of the predominant cultural understanding, while explicable, is damaging to science and to many transsexuals.

The following leaflet issued by Gendered Intelligence, called All About Trans: Tips for Writing and Editing Transgender News Stories gives useful tips for journalists, bloggers and anyone else writing about transgender issues. The overall message is if you are unsure, ask.

Dr Mukerjee is the UK’s leading clinician and researcher on FASD. Most families looking for a diagnosis for their children end up at his surgery at one time or another, or see someone trained by him. He is also a popular speaker at conferences concerned with adoption and FASD. This short review article gives a useful summary of FASD. Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder: an overview. Raja A S Mukherjee1 Sheila Hollins1 J Turk2 J R Soc Med 2006;99:298–302. Nb. for those who are confused, the UK spelling is foetal while the US/Canadian spelling is fetal. The pronunciation is the same. Usage depends on the journal ‘house style’.

This recent guide published by the Department for Education in the UK, Special Educational Needs and Disability: A guide for parents and carers (August 2014) sets out the changes to the ways in which children with additional educational needs are to be assessed and aided (or not). Although the raison d’être of most changes seems to be to make it harder to obtain well-targeted help for children and young people, and to save money, this is still essential reading in order to understand the system.

I havecut and pasted a few pages of organisations that could be of help for teenagers and young adults moving out of the parental home, particularly if they have been or are in danger of getting mixed up in the criminal justice system, or have problems with drug and alcohol abuse.